Public Access to Research Data

APLU Impact

• APLU and the Association of American Universities (AAU) are working with research universities to improve public access to federally funded research data. 

• Drawing on insights from leading institutions, APLU and AAU have issued several reports outlining steps the federal government and public universities can take to increase public access to research data. 

Public access to data used in federally funded research in peer-reviewed journals is essential for rigorous science, discovery, and the reproducibility of research. Public universities are committed to sharing the results of their research whenever possible.   

In 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memo directing federal agencies with more than $100 million in annual research spending to make the results of federally funded research available. Not all results from federal research is subject to this disclosure. APLU and AAU formed a working group on public access examining how to improve public access to data resulting from federally funded research. 

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF# 1939279) and National Institutes of Health, APLU and AAU released a Guide to Accelerate Public Access to Research. The guide is based upon previous workshops and conferences that convened teams from many of your respective campuses to discuss this important topic, including two National Summits held in February 2019 and March 2020. The associations will host a series of webinars on the Guide in May 2021.  

 In 2017, the group issued a report with a series of recommendations to universities on how to increase public access to research data on their own campuses and how they also work together to advance these efforts. The group also made recommendations concerning how federal agencies could help facilitate sharing of research data at universities. In 2018, APLU and AAU led a National Science Foundation-funded workshop (NSF #1837847) helping institutions develop strategic plans for making data resulting from federally funded research publicly available. The workshop provided a venue for learning, sharing, and planning to support research universities as they implement systems for public access to research data.  

APLU joined the Association of Research Libraries, the California Digital Library, and the Association of American Universities in convening a conference in 2019 and releasing a report with recommendations for data practices supporting an open research ecosystem.